SAT preparation

I am often asked about SAT prep courses, resources, etc. With the increasing competitiveness of college admissions, higher scores can only be a good thing. But the question is always whether spending a lot of money on a prep course is actually worth it. In general, studies suggest that it isn't. So what is effective?
One of the main, cheap ways to prepare for SAT or ACT testing is a simple one: read. Read daily, read a variety of items (no need to tackle War and Peace--the newspaper, biography, essay are all effective) and pay attention to the way the writer writes, as well as the content. Reading provides numerous skills applicable to the SAT or ACT: vocabulary increases, recognition of grammatical structures improves, knowledge of facts or ideas useful for the essay writing section expands. This article (http://www.examiner.com/article/improve-your-sat-score-by-reading-this-summer) provides some ideas for how to approach this simple, inexpensive test prep strategy.
Another cheap way is to find all the free test prep material online. collegeboard.org and actstudent.org will provide daily practice questions, full length practice tests and everything in between. Students who have taken the PSAT also have access to test prep that is focused on their PSAT test results, providing individualized direction for those areas needing improvement.  The website and access code are listed on the PSAT results.
https://www.number2.com/ is also free test prep for either the SAT or ACT. www.khanacademy.com provides tutoring for math concepts. Princeton Review provides free full length tests with detailed performance results that will help to focus preparation. McGraw-Hill also provides full length practice exams and a whole bunch of test strategy videos for a variety of possible problem areas. 
And all of these cost no money at all, just some time on your child's part.